The first woman to speak publicly about sexual assault by former U.S. gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and the last to testify against him in court called out evangelical leaders March 1 for what she says is a double standard when it comes to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Rachael Denhollander — a 33-year-old mother of three who lives in Louisville, Ky., where her husband is a Ph.D. student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary — said on Facebook that church leaders should “apply the same level of intellectual honesty and scrutiny that we apply to groups outside our own community” when similar allegations involve someone they know.
C.J. Mahaney (front row, far right) pictured with other Together for the Gospel planners in this recent photo posted on Twitter by Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler (second row, left).
Denhollander, whose January testimony against the disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor made her an instant celebrity, wrote in response to a Feb. 13 statement by Sovereign Grace Churches disputing her earlier comments about a 2012 lawsuit alleging widespread abuse in the neo-Calvinist network.
Denhollander, a graduate of the Oak Brook College of Law, called for “a transparent, public, independent investigation” into allegations never brought to trial because the lawsuit was dismissed due to legal technicalities.
“Penn State University is a byword for sexual assault scandals, yet it took Penn State a mere six days to commission a truly independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Jerry Sandusky,” she said. “It took Michigan State University an excruciating 17 months to finally request a similar investigation into the Larry Nassar case.”
“Yet, it has been more than seven years and Sovereign Grace has steadfastly refused this sort of accountability in the face of multiple instances of abuse within the organization,” she continued, “even though they have been asked multiple times to clear the air.”
Christians across the country praised Denhollander for presenting the gospel and forgiving her abuser in her victim’s impact statement during the Nassar trial. She later told Christianity Today her experience was much different when she spoke up in her former church against efforts by leadership to restore former Sovereign Grace leader C.J. Mahaney to the ministry.
Mahaney, whose current church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, is among 10 plenary speakers scheduled to take the stage at the 2018 Together for the Gospel preaching conference April 11-13 in Louisville.
Other plenary speakers include Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler, District of Columbia Pastor Mark Dever and David Platt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board.
Denhollander said the same qualities that brought her wide acclaim in the Nassar case were denigrated as “zeal without knowledge” and damaging to the gospel when applied to her own community of Reformed evangelicals. She called it a case of “institutional and community protectionism.”
“We need to realize that the reason we are gaining a reputation for handling these situations so poorly is not because people hate the gospel and make up lies about us, but because we have a real problem in how we think about sexual abuse and how we think about our leaders and institutions,” she wrote.
Denhollander said what happens in Sovereign Grace Churches reflects on the entire Reformed evangelical community, where it is held up as a model with leaders in positions of authority.
“When it is not important enough to listen, to find out the facts, to require accountability and transparency, that sends a message about how much Reformed evangelicals care about sexual assault,” she said.
Denhollander said evangelicals who promote Sovereign Grace leaders “have a responsibility to those who see this support in light of the allegations, and the way the victims have been treated.”
“We cannot hold state universities to higher standards than we hold ourselves,” Denhollander said. “How can we claim moral clarity and a voice on these issues, and approve holding state institutions to a standard that we are not even willing to hold ourselves to?”
Sponsors for this year’s Together for the Gospel conference include LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Southern and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary are offering academic credit for students who attend.
A pre-conference on opening day will seek to build a new coalition promoting views of gender and sexuality articulated in the Nashville Statement, a document unveiled last August and endorsed by a number of SBC leaders declaring homosexuality and transgender identity to be sinful and not something about which faithful Christians can agree to disagree.
Previous stories:
Key witness in Michigan State abuse scandal alleges double standard in evangelical church
‘Nashville Statement’ condemns LGBT Christians and those who support them
Pastor in alleged sex abuse cover-up returns to preaching conference roster